PRIMARY SCHOOL DRUGS SHOCK

Childline Rings Alarm Bells After Three Grade 7 Boys Are Suspended
For Dagga Possession.

Three Pietermaritzburg primary school pupils were barred from
attending classes for a week after being found in possession of dagga.

The Grade 7 pupils, aged between 12 and 13, were trapped with the
narcotics two weeks ago during a spot inspection by a teacher.

The discovery has shocked the close-knit Northdale community and
highlighted the growing problem of drug peddling and abuse by primary
school pupils.

Provincial education department spokesman Mbali Thusi said the boys
were suspended for a week after a disciplinary hearing involving
their parents and the police.

Thusi said the school had acted in accordance with its code of
conduct.

However, the boys were permitted to attend school to write exams
during their suspension.

Thusi said the boys would receive counselling.

The incident has heightened fears that primary school pupils have
become soft targets of drug dealers.

The director of Childline KZN, Linda Naidoo, said: "It's been an
emerging trend that we have been finding in the last couple of years
which shows that primary schools have been targeted for the dealing
and use of drugs.

"We have found more and more schools where drugs are becoming
prevalent. Initially there were issues around high schools, but we
have been finding it in primary schools."

She said pupils who were in possession of drugs could be runners for
dealers in the area.

"Kids don't have the kind of sophistication to peddle drugs. Children
at that age are not deviant. They are so innocent and vulnerable to
money and influences.

"Owing to their nature and curiosity and their susceptibility, people
tend to prey on them to run these types of activities, and this is
the concerning thing."

She said parents needed to monitor their children's behaviour
closely.

"If children are manifesting a rapid change in behaviour, you don't
attribute it to a developmental stage. It's probably a child who
requires help."

A concerned parent who did not want to be named said she was "shocked
and outraged" when she heard about the incident.

"It is so scary what is happening. It's the first time that something
like this has happened," she said.

She was disappointed that the school had not notified other
parents.

"I intend calling the school to set up a meeting. We need to know
what happened and what measures, as parents, we need to take."

Pastor Salvanis Pillay, a counsellor at the RivLife Community Centre
who works with troubled children, said it was "worrying" that primary
school children were being preyed on.

"We need to ask the question: why would a primary school child want
to search for meaning outside the security he finds within his
family," said Pillay.

He added that when children did not find acceptance at home, they
looked elsewhere, which resulted in people manipulating them.

"This is where the drug culture and the druglords come in and lure
them and make them feel accepted."